Utah's Trey Burke, right, drives into Cleveland's Anderson Varejao during a game in Salt Lake City on Jan. 10. The Cavaliers defeated the Jazz 113-102.

When the Detroit Pistons passed on Trey Burke for shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the Utah Jazz front office immediately went to work.

"I wouldn't say my feelings were hurt," Burke said. "Obviously it was a team I could have seen myself playing for, just because I played in Michigan and a lot of people expected them to pick me up at the time.

"It's a business. Things happen. They went in a different direction."

General manager Dennis Lindsey and Kevin O'Connor, executive vice president of basketball operations, swung a trade with Minnesota to move up to get the University of Michigan sophomore.

There are no regrets as Burke made his first and only appearance of the season in Detroit on Monday. A former Mr. Basketball in Ohio, he was not offered by Ohio State despite playing his high school ball in Columbus. Instead, he came to Michigan and won National Player of the Year honors last season while leading the Wolverines to the NCAA Finals.

His morning shoot-around in Auburn Hills was halted by a mandatory NBA random drug test; just like the start of his professional career was waylaid by a fractured finger in a collision he suffered against All-Star point guard Chris Paul in an exhibition game. It caused him to miss the start of the season.

"This feels like a second home to me having played in Ann Arbor and being this close to home," Burke said. "This was a game I definitely looked forward to. I played here and you see all the fans that ask for autographs. It's kind of like yesterday when I was in Ann Arbor in college."

With Burke out of the lineup, the Jazz were 1-11. With him they were 12-16 before tonight's matchup with the Pistons.

"When we were getting closer to our pick it was 'man, we're going to get him,' " coach Tyrone Corbin said of Burke. "Then luckily for us Dennis and Kevin were able to make a move for us to move up to get him. It was great. First of all we needed a point guard, and to get a young point guard as successful as he was in college and have a chance to be the player that we think he can be in this league is great to get him at this juncture.''

"It was a team decision to move up to get Trey, but it was spearheaded Dennis Lindsey," said Walt Perrin, Utah's vice president of player personnel and a former Pistons front office member. "We saw his competitiveness. We looked at some statistical analysis and it came up positive in terms of being able to score the ball and get other teammates involved.

"His assist-to-turnover was high because he had a lot more assists to turnovers. The assists usually go up in the NBA. Turnovers may go up a little bit because of the extra minutes, but your ratio usually gets better if you're a good point guard."

Corbin said Burke's passing has really caught his eye.

"He's coming along," Corbin said. "It has been a rookie year for him. Getting hurt early in training camp kind of set him back a little bit, but he did a great job of watching, understanding and learning from watching until he got a chance to get back on the floor. He has gotten himself back into pretty good shape and he's starting to see some of the fruits of his labor that he put in early.

"He's a confident young fellow that's working his way through it and he's learning every night out how important it is for him to understand the talent he's playing against each and every night."

Pistons coach Maurice Cheeks has watched and been impressed with Burke's game.

"From what I've seen he has been pretty good," said Cheeks. "He seems pretty heady for a point guard. He seems like he understands how to play for a rookie. I'm impressed with the way he plays."

Said Burke: "The best advice I got was to take care of myself off the court. Some guys told me it took them five to six years and by then it was too late."